The Champagne area in a few words The Winery Autréau Technical Sheets Gift Boxes Advertising Material CHAMPAGNE AREA IN A FEW WORDS Geographical location 5 grape growing areas North East of France Mountain of Reims (Montagne de Reims) Majority of Pinot Noir. Clay and limestone soils and chalk in depth. 5 Départements (Essentially Marne, Aisne and Aube and a Various sun exposure including a lot to the north. little bit in Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne) White hillside (Côte des Blancs) 34 282 ha on 5 different areas. Soil made of chalk. Sun exposure : east, south east. Essentially Chardonnay 320 Villages including 17 Grand Crus and 42 Premiers crus Sezanne hillside (Côte de Sézanne) Reims is located at 49.5° North latitude, either the most Soil made of clay, marl, sand and chalk. Majority of Chardonnay. northerly vineyard of France. Marne Valley (Vallée de la Marne) Extrem climate for wine growing Clay and limestone soils in majority and a bit of Marl. Exposure to the north on a slope and to the south on the other one. Essentially Pinot Continental and Oceanic climate. Meunier Average temperature in Epernay : 10.5°C. 1 650 hours of sunshine per year (To compare : 2 069 hours in Bars hillside (Côte des Bars) Bordeaux and 1 910 in Burgundy). Limestone and marl soils (as we can see in Chablis area). 100 meters of Regular and moderate rainfall. altitude more than the Marne area. Majority of Pinot Noir. Cold, wind, rain and significant risk of frost in Spring. Winter frost every 7 years and Spring frost every 3 years on average. A specific vinification Hailstorm every 5 years ! Measurement unit : «The Marc» One Marc = 4 000 kgs de raisins. Crus classification Divided pressing : 1st part : one «Cuvée» of 2 050 liters. 2nd part : two «Tailles» of 250 liters each. AOP Champagne AOP Champagne Grand Cru Premier Cru 6% of the Champagne Fermentation and blending. 15% of the Champagne vineyard vineyard Bottling : Adding sugar about 24 gr./liter and yeasts. 2nd fermentation in bottle (period of 1 to 3 months) 6 bars of pressure inside the bottle after bottle fermentation. Ageing on lies : 15 months minimum (Brut non-vintage) or 3 years AOP Champagne 79% of the Champagne minimum (Vintage) vineyard Riddling, disgorgment (loss of 1 bar pressure) and adding of «liqueur d’expédition» (Blend with reserve wine and sugar about 600 gr./liter) to Grapes varieties distribution make the dosage. Autres 99 hectares Chardonnay 0,3 % Pinot Noir 10 126 hectares 13 122 hectares Dosage 29,5 % 38,3 % measurement Dosage Sugar content Doux > 50 g / L. Blending Art Demi - sec 33 - 50 g / L. Sec 17 - 35 g / L. Brut non-vintage make 85 % of Pinot Meunier total production of Champagne 10 940 hectares Extra - Dry 12 - 17 g / L. 31,9 % area. Brut 6 - 12 g / L. Economic Players Extra - Brut 3 - 6 g / L. This is a blend of different grape varieties, soils and years. 4 629 Récoltants Manipulants Brut Nature NO Approximately 66 millions bottles shipped Non dosé SUGAR 135 Coopératives (incl. 40 sell their champagnes) Zéro dosage ADDED Approximately 28 millions bottles shipped 392 Négociants Approximately 210 millions bottles shipped THE WINERY AUTREAU The History Terroir & Grape Varieties Autréau, this name exists since 1670 in the village of At the moment we work 35 hectares of vineyards on four Champillon. different terroirs : At this time, the art of champagne’s elaboration did not exist but the family Autréau was a family of artists, which Champillon - Dizy - Hautvillers the authors have today their place at the Louvre Museum Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier et Chardonnay and at the famous Castel of Versailles in Paris. 11 hectares After that, the wine growing was the first activity of the AOP Champagne Premier Cru family but, at the beginning the grapes was sold every year to the big negiciants. Aÿ-Champagne At the beginning of the 50’s, Gérard Autréau decides to Pinot Noir et Chardonnay keep his grapes to produce champagne. 6 hectares Approximately 25 years later, Eric (the son) is coming in the AOP Champagne Grand Cru Winery to continue to produce champagne and to increase the sell. Chouilly A few year ago, the third generation (Laurent) is arrived in Chardonnay the Winery and it’s today 3 generations who produce and 5,5 hectares sell 750 000 bottles per year. AOP Champagne Grand Cru Verneuil Vineyard’s Working Pinot Noir et Pinot Meunier 12,5 hectares Concerned about the respect of environment but, also AOP Champagne concerned by the good maintenance of our vineyards to have a beautiful quality of grapes, we practice sustainable In addition to our proper vineyards, we have some contracts viticulture. Member of the MAGISTER Network which is a with others owners while not producing champagne and we viticultural monitoring network, we limit at the maximum buy their grapes year after year. the number of intervention for the treatments and we only use friendly products of the vine and environment. This method permit us to control the quality of our supplies in the time and to give a real identity to our range of wines. The Vinification Our philosophy is respect of traditions while using modern The Marketing techniques. The pressing is done slowly in 2 membrane presses to do not extract the color from the skin and to make white wines Our products are only sold in small retailers, restaurants, with 2 black grape varieties. After the pressing, we make a short decantation to do not extract hôtels, but not in supermarkets. bad smells during the fermentations. The first fermentation is the alcoholic fermentation and the 45 % of the production is sold in France and the rest is sold second is the malo-lactic fermentation. All of our vinification are on different export markets essentially in Europe. made in stainless still thank. Our first markets are Belgium, United Kingdom and After the fermentation we can have the first tasting to make the Germany. We work also a lot in Italia, Slovakia, Swiss, first blending tests. Luxembourg and Finland. When the blending is finished we can make the cold stabilization and the last filtration to have a clear still white wine ready to be Our next challenges for the next years are the United States bottled. of America, Australia and Asia. During the bottling, sugar and yeasts are added to the wine to make the third fermentation in bottle, to obtain the bubbles... This fermentation is made in a period of 6 to 8 weeks but, we have to keep the bottles in the cellars for the ageing. For us it’s about 30 to 36 months on lies for the Brut NV and 5 to 6 years minimum for the vintages. The riddling, the disgorgment and the labelling are also made in Champillon and after these last three steps, the champagne is ready to be drink by you !! CHAMPAGNE AUTREAU DE CHAMPILLON BRUT PREMIER CRU TECHNICAL ANALYSIS CHARACTERISTICS The three varieties of grapes gathered in this blend Pressure at 20 degrees (100 kPa) are : the Pinot Noir (40 %), Pinot Meunier (40 %) 6.7 which give it personality and Chardonnay (20 %) which gives it daintiness. Alcohol content (% vol.) 12.50 THE WORDS OF THE OENOL OGIST A strong gold colour with fine salmon glints. Deep Total acidity (g/l H2SO4 ) aromas in which fresh fruits dominate with a hint of 4.7 hazelnut. The taste is full bodied and pleasant due to the heavy fruit. The dosage is light which permits pH this wine to express its « finesse ». 3.07 TASTING Disgorging dosage All opportunities, but this well balanced Champagne 6 gr. / L is recommended for aperitifs and cocktails. Available in all sizes from the quarter bottle to the Nabuchodonosor. Permanent stock until the Mathusalem. For others big sizes, only on request. CHAMPAGNE AUTREAU DE CHAMPILLON EXTRA - BRUT PREMIER CRU TECHNICAL ANALYSIS CHARACTERISTICS The three varieties of grapes gathered in this blend Pressure at 20 degrees (100 kPa) are : the Pinot Noir (40 %), Pinot Meunier (40 %) 6.7 which give it personality and Chardonnay (20 %) which gives it daintiness. Alcohol content (% vol.) 12.50 THE WORDS OF THE OENOL OGIST The Cuvée Extra - Brut with a light dosage allows this Total acidity (g/l H2SO4 ) Champagne to express perfectly the aromas of our 4.7 typical terroir of the Champagne area. You will be enchanted by freshness, delicacy and elegance. pH 3.07 TASTING To enjoy on all occasions Disgorging dosage 3 gr. / L ONLY AVAILABLE IN BOTTLE CHAMPAGNE AUTREAU DE CHAMPILLON BRUT ROSÉ PREMIER CRU CHARACTERISTICS This Champagne is based on the daintiness and the TECHNICAL ANALYSIS elegance of the Chardonnay (85 %) together with the colour of the red grapes from the area. Pressure at 20 degrees (100 kPa) 6.6 THE WORDS OF THE OENOLOGIST The pink colour is deep and asserts the character of Alcohol content (% vol.) this blend. The hints of blackcurrant and blackberry 12.50 enhance the fruit in this light Champagne. The full and deep nose is marked by fine notes of Total Acidity (g/l H2SO4 ) melon and grapefruit. 4.6 The taste is meaty, the foam is onctuous and the aromatic after-taste is long. pH 3.07 TASTING Disgorging dosage This pink, warm and solid wine is a « Gourmet 6 gr. / L Champagne ». It accompanies wonderfully the dessert. ONLY AVAILABLE IN BOTTLE CHAMPAGNE AUTREAU DE CHAMPILLON BRUT BLANC DE BLANCS GRAND CRU TECHNICAL ANALYSIS Pressure at 20 degrees (100 kPa) CHARACTERISTICS 7.5 Just a pure Chardonnay from Chouilly (White Hillside) Alcohol content (% vol.) 12.50 THE WORDS OF THE OENOLOGIST The lemon yellow colour with bright gold and Total Acidity (g/l H2SO4 ) almond green glints is typical of the Chardonnay.